Improvement in apparatus for attaching standing rigging to masts



' 5 ILPErERS, PHOTO-LITHOGRAPMER. WASHINGTON D C JAMES NUTE, or BOSTON, MASSAcHUSnTTS.

Letters Patent N o. 107,093, dated September 6, 1870.

IMPROVEMENT IN APPARATUS/FOR ATTACHIN-G-STANDING RIG-GING- TO MASTB.

The Schedule referred to in these Letters Patent and making part of the same.

I, JAMES NUTE, of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have inventeda Method of Attaching the Standing Rigging of Vessels to the Mastheads of Lower Masts and 'lop Masts, of which the following is a specification.

Natureand Object of the Invention.

My apparatus consists of a double (or compound) wrought-iron band fitted upon the masthead just above the trestle-trees, to which band the shrouds and stays are attached by means of links made into the outerportion of said compound band and iron shackles rigged into and supporting the standing rigging.

Description of the Accompanying Drawing.

Figure 1 represents the apparatus (without. the links) as seen from above on a section of a lower foremast-head.

Figure 2 represents a side view of the same, withv the links,`one of the vlatter being in position to support the forestay.

Figure 3 represents the apparatus. (without ,the links) as seen from above on asection of the fol-etopmast-head.

Figure 4 represents a side view of the same, with lthe links, and also with a bail, (the use'of which will be duly explained,) a topmastfshroud and backstays, all properly attached, and a long link in its proper position to support the foretop-niast-stay.,

Figure 5 is an isometric view ofthe two parts of my apparatus, as intended to be applied to the foretopmast, placed together for use, but detached from the mast-head.

General Description.

The inner portion, A, of my compound band,is itself a broad band of wrought-iron, say from seven'to nine inches wide by one-half to tive-eighth inches thick, and lits closely upon its mast-head directlyeahove the trestle-trees t t, where the mast is squared. This band is galvanized (coated with zinc) after being wrought to its exact shape. This I call the inner band. Its outside is tapered from below upward just enough to receive and hold securely the outer portion ofther compound band below described.

Thin plates of wrought iron, resting upon the trestle-trees, and secured to them, will prevent, in ease of necessity, the band A from settling and 'cutting into the wood of the trestle-trecs.

The outer portion, B, of my compound band is also of wrought iron, (not galvanized,) say two to three inches deep, i. e., between its upperand under surfaces, and three to four inches thick, i. e., fromits outer edge to its inner surface that rests on-the inner band. This I call the plate-band. The central opening of the plate-band is just large enough to allow the band to slip with ease partly down upon theinner band, tapered to receive it, as before stated. The surfaces ot' this central opening are beveled slightly, to correspond to the taper of the inner band. and the plate-baud is made to lit very firmly upon the inner band by being heated and shrunk on.

Near thel outer edge of the plate-band, on the s'ide toward the beams of the vessel, eyes, c c c c c, are made, three, four, or five, in number, according to the rig of the. particular mast, and in each eye is inserteda wrought-iron link, d.

At the foretopmast-head of a square-rigged vessel a second link, e, is made into each of the above-described links d d al d ll. At the foremast-head the forward one of the links d d d d is made long and of the general shape seen in fig. 2, while into each` ofthe others a second link, e, is made. The size of the iron to be used for the links and for the bail the practical shipsmith will determine, having due reference to the dead-eye straps, eye-bolts, or otherdevices to which the rigging is set up below. To make use of my apparatus, the upper ends of the shrouds, swifters, and forestay of the lower foremast, and of the foretop-mast stay, shrouds, and backstays 0f the foretop-niast are doubled through bulls eyesy o r over lift-shackle thimbles, and seized in the usual manner below the doublings. The bulls eyes ol lift'- shackles are then secured in place bybeing shackled into their respective links, as shown in tig. 4, and the several shrouds, &c., can afterward be set up at the lower ends in the usual manner.

Y In fig. 4-

, j represents the. starboard-backstays attached by a bulls eye; y

g represents the forward topmast-shroud on the starboard side, attached by a lift-shackle, (with thim- I ble;) vand t h represents the starboard half of the foretop-mast stay, in connection with its appropriate link,- though .i represents thestarboard half of the forestay in connection with its appropriate link, but not properly. attached to it. v

In large square-rigged vessels the `)'ib-stay andying- 4jlb stay now generally lead to the tbretop-mast-head;

and

In gs.- 4 and 5- v It represents a bail, (similar in general shape to the bail now sometimes used on the mast-heads of foreand-aft schooners,) cachot' its ends terminating in two eyes, so as to receive a bolt, best shown in lig. 4. By this bolt either end of the bailis shackled to the lower forward link provided for it, as shown in the drawing.

The jill-stay and flying-jlb stay are attached, side by side, to the bail L' in the manner shown for attaching the shroud g, iig. 4, to the third lower link. In practice it may sometimes hefound that thelower ends of the long'liuks, and perhaps theends oi" the hail, are spread outward by the width of -the trestle-trees t t. this may he prevented in the manufacture by hending each long link andeach arln of thevhail outward' In the center to a how-shape.

The foregoing description, and the-drawing referred to, give the details applicable to the ibreInast-head :ind lhretop-inast-head of a ship. Tile apparatus may, however, be applied to any lower mast-head, whether square-rigged or not, and to any top-inast-hezul by :nakingo such alterations or omissions in the details as a. practical Ishipsrnith would tind necessary. Thus the plate-hand B, on the main-mast of a hre-an'd-aft schooner, would have, at the most, hut tln'ec eyes on cach side, and no long,r links.

'If applied to yachts and other small vessels, the several parts of the apparatus would, of course, be' diminished in size.

The advantage of usingr my apparatus consists- Frst, rin saving both the rigging and the mast-head from being rott'ed by the moisture that always collects when the old method is followed, and from being cut and Worn away (as in the old method) by the strain and working of the mast-head iu the eyes of the rigging; and

Secondly, in the opportunity it gives to renew any portion of the standing rigging ofa lower-mast or square-rigged toplnast, without stripping and sending down all the spurs above it.

Claims.

1. Thel plate-hand B, (whether of iron or any other metal or composition Ot' inet-ah) made substantially as and for the purposes hereinheforc set forth.

2,'Tl1e combination, in one apparatus, ofthe inner hand A, and the plate-hand B.

JAMES NUTE.

Witnesses:

JOHN W. HUDSON, FREDERIC DODGE. 

